U.S. Escalates Global Fight Against Chinese Police Outposts with F.B.I. Searches

China: The U.S. government is increasing its efforts in the global battle against Chinese police outposts with the use of F.B.I. searches, reports the New York Times.

F.B.I. counterintelligence agents searched a building in New York's Chinatown last fall as part of a criminal investigation being conducted with the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, as part of an escalation in a global dispute over China’s efforts to police its diaspora far beyond its borders.

Irish, Canadian and Dutch officials have called for China to shut down police operations in their countries.

The F.B.I. raid is the first known example of the authorities seizing materials from one of the outposts.

"It’s extremely worrying from the human rights perspective. We’re essentially allowing the Chinese diaspora to be controlled by the P.R.C. rather than subject to our national laws,” said Igor Merheim-Eyre, an adviser to a Slovakian member of the European Parliament, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

“That obviously has a huge impact — not only for our relations with the Chinese diaspora across Europe, but also has huge implications for national sovereignty.”

Chinese state news media reports reviewed by The New York Times cite police and local Chinese officials by name describing the operations very differently.

They tout the effectiveness of the offices, which are frequently called overseas police service centers. Some reports describe the Chinese outposts “collecting intelligence” and solving crimes abroad without collaborating with local officials.

The public statements leave it murky who exactly is running the offices. Sometimes they are referred to as volunteers; other times as staff members or, in at least one case, the director.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington played down the role of the outposts, saying they are staffed by volunteers who help Chinese nationals perform routine tasks like renewing their driver’s licenses back home.

However, Western officials see the outposts as part of Beijing’s larger drive to keep tabs on Chinese nationals abroad, including dissidents.

The most notorious such effort is known as Operation Fox Hunt, in which Chinese officials hunt down fugitives abroad and pressure them to return home.

At least four Chinese localities — Fuzhou, Qingtian, Nantong and Wenzhou — have set up dozens of police outposts, according to state media accounts and public statements published in China.

They identify sites in Japan, Italy, France, Britain, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic and other nations.